From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Scott Long Subject: Re: Proposed enhancements to MD Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2004 15:44:38 -0700 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org Message-ID: <400474D6.30705@adaptec.com> References: <20040113233320.23e4cfef.pegasus@nerv.eu.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Return-path: In-Reply-To: <20040113233320.23e4cfef.pegasus@nerv.eu.org> To: =?UTF-8?B?SnVyZSBQZcSNYXI=?= Cc: jgarzik@pobox.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-raid@vger.kernel.org, neilb@cse.unsw.edu.au List-Id: linux-raid.ids Jure Pe=C4=8Dar wrote: > On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 13:41:07 -0700 > Scott Long wrote: >=20 >=20 >>A problem that we've encountered, though, is the following sequence: >> >>1) md is inialized during boot >>2) drives X Y and Z are probed during boot >>3) root fs exists on array [X Y Z], but md didn't see them show up, >> so it didn't auto-configure the array >> >>I'm not sure how this can be addressed by a userland daemon. Remembe= r >>that we are focused on providing RAID during boot; configuring a >>secondary array after boot is a much easier problem. >=20 >=20 > Looking at this chicken-and-egg problem of booting from an array from > administrator's point of view ... >=20 > What do you guys think about Intel's EFI? I think it would be the mos= t > apropriate place to put a piece of code that would scan the disks, > assemble > any arrays and present them to the OS as bootable devices ... If we'r= e > going > to get a common metadata layout, that would be even easier. >=20 > Thoughts? >=20 The BIOS already scans the disks, assembles the arrays, and presents finds the boot sector, and presents the arrays to the loader/GRUB. Are you saying that EFI should be the interface by which the arrays are communicated through, even after the kernel has booted? Is this possible right now? Scott